Title:This Side of Paradise(1920)– [Nick] Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Genre: Fiction, bildungsroman, period drama Description: Fitzgerald's first novel centers on Amory Blaine and follows him from his youth through college, military service, several love affairs and the loss of his mentor. As Amory grows and changes the audience is subjected to narration of questionable reliability and the length of time which the text covers offers an extensive view of WWI era America. Rationale: Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby” has long been an iconic high school reading experience, but where it succeeds as a novel it fails to deliver much of the historical insight with which it is often credited. Gatsby sticks close to its characters and storyline with temporal markers limited to the mention of prohibition and WWI. In contrast “This Side of Paradise,” by virtue of its longer time line, offers extensive opportunities to view the experience of numerous age groups during the time period. Texts in this category might ask students to undertake unique critical tasks, this novel challenges them to hone their ability to glean a wealth of contextual information from a text. Text Complexity:
Lexile 1070L Rubric:
Layout: Very Complex
Purpose and Meaning: Complex
Structure: Very Complex
Language Features: Very Complex
Knowledge Demands: Complex
Title:Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values(1974)– [Nick] Author: Robert M. Pirsig Genre: Philosophical Novel Description: Pirsig utilizes a narrative structure to guide readers through an analysis of “quality” as a concept. Centering his meditation on this idea he spends the text reconciling two conflicting schools of philosophical thought. This difficult task naturally leads to a complex text but this complexity is mitigated both by the structure he selects for the endeavor and by the accompanying models he uses to explain the concepts. Themes: Philosophy, Logical deduction and induction, critical analysis Rationale: Pirsig's novel represents what I would classify as the uppermost bound of high school language arts education, scaffolding the complex task of parsing opposing schools of thought. The university process of specialization requires an engagement and indoctrination into a specific field's accumulated understanding and philosophy. Preparing students for this process helps to keep the experience from being totally alien and equips students with the tools they need to make cross-discipline connections and insights of university level sophistication Text Complexity:
Lexile 1040L Rubric:
Layout: Very Complex
Purpose and Meaning: Very Complex
Structure: Complex
Language Features: Complex
Knowledge Demands: Complex
Title: One Hundred Years Of Solitude-- [Ben G.]ISBN: 006112009x Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez Genre: Fiction Lexile: 1410L (college junior) Description: I have ADD/ADHD and i read this book as a junior in High School for pleasure at a time when it was painstaking for me to read the books i was assigned for English class. Marquez is the master of his own sub-genre in literature, Magical Realism, and this comes through clearly in this book where the surreal is just as much a part of the reality as its most tangible objects. Marquez has the ability to transform the normal, mundane, and pedestrian aspects of the world into a dreamlike fluidity of events that feel more interconnected and timeless than distinct moments.This work is considered my many critics to be his masterpiece and best book. I can't imagine a better, more interesting, weird and gripping book to challenge a TAG student or a student like myself who has the ability to hyper focus given the right material to wrestle with. The story takes place in a fictional town in Columbia over decades and follows the Buendia families struggles from generations through war and peace. Theme/Topic: Timelessness. Interconnectedness. Modernism and Literature. The Surreal. Magical Realism. Rationale: This book should be on everyone's book shelf in their classroom because a resistant reader might come along, peek inside of it, read a few pages and be instantly hooked. It has that power. I could see this book being the primary work in a unit on Modern Literature or Magical Realism for AP English students but again it would be a great book to challenge other students with as well.
Group members, please add one or two books to this list.
The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir The Turn of the Screw - Henry James - SC Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman - SC Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig - SC, NPH
This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald - NPH
Crime and Punishment -- by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Ben Garcia's Input)
Oedipus Rex -- by Sophocles (Ben Garcia's Input)
One Hundred Years of Solitude -- by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Ben Garcia used this one above)
Books for Advanced Readers
Title: This Side of Paradise(1920) – [Nick]
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: Fiction, bildungsroman, period drama
Description: Fitzgerald's first novel centers on Amory Blaine and follows him from his youth through college, military service, several love affairs and the loss of his mentor. As Amory grows and changes the audience is subjected to narration of questionable reliability and the length of time which the text covers offers an extensive view of WWI era America.
Rationale: Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby” has long been an iconic high school reading experience, but where it succeeds as a novel it fails to deliver much of the historical insight with which it is often credited. Gatsby sticks close to its characters and storyline with temporal markers limited to the mention of prohibition and WWI. In contrast “This Side of Paradise,” by virtue of its longer time line, offers extensive opportunities to view the experience of numerous age groups during the time period. Texts in this category might ask students to undertake unique critical tasks, this novel challenges them to hone their ability to glean a wealth of contextual information from a text.
Text Complexity:
Lexile 1070L
Rubric:
Layout: Very Complex
Purpose and Meaning: Complex
Structure: Very Complex
Language Features: Very Complex
Knowledge Demands: Complex
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/sep/18/classics.fscottfitzgerald – An interview from 1936 that provides insight into Fitzgerald's often overlooked later years. The article makes an interesting counterpoint to his first novel that made Fitzgerald a meteoric success just 16 years prior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kNDN1rdY8U – Excellent short film interpretation of one of the novel's earlier episodes.
Title: Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values(1974) – [Nick]
Author: Robert M. Pirsig
Genre: Philosophical Novel
Description: Pirsig utilizes a narrative structure to guide readers through an analysis of “quality” as a concept. Centering his meditation on this idea he spends the text reconciling two conflicting schools of philosophical thought. This difficult task naturally leads to a complex text but this complexity is mitigated both by the structure he selects for the endeavor and by the accompanying models he uses to explain the concepts.
Themes: Philosophy, Logical deduction and induction, critical analysis
Rationale: Pirsig's novel represents what I would classify as the uppermost bound of high school language arts education, scaffolding the complex task of parsing opposing schools of thought. The university process of specialization requires an engagement and indoctrination into a specific field's accumulated understanding and philosophy. Preparing students for this process helps to keep the experience from being totally alien and equips students with the tools they need to make cross-discipline connections and insights of university level sophistication
Text Complexity:
Lexile 1040L
Rubric:
Layout: Very Complex
Purpose and Meaning: Very Complex
Structure: Complex
Language Features: Complex
Knowledge Demands: Complex
http://www.ram.org/ramblings/books/zen_and_the_art_of_motorcycle_maintenance.html – This review of the text supports the value of Pirsig's novel as an entry level philosophical text.
http://eolit.hrw.com/hlla/novelguides/hs/Mini-Guide.Pirsig.pdf – A succinct guide to Pirsig's text on a chapter by chapter basis.
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
Title: One Hundred Years Of Solitude-- [Ben G.] ISBN: 006112009x
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Genre: Fiction
Lexile: 1410L (college junior)
Description: I have ADD/ADHD and i read this book as a junior in High School for pleasure at a time when it was painstaking for me to read the books i was assigned for English class. Marquez is the master of his own sub-genre in literature, Magical Realism, and this comes through clearly in this book where the surreal is just as much a part of the reality as its most tangible objects. Marquez has the ability to transform the normal, mundane, and pedestrian aspects of the world into a dreamlike fluidity of events that feel more interconnected and timeless than distinct moments.This work is considered my many critics to be his masterpiece and best book. I can't imagine a better, more interesting, weird and gripping book to challenge a TAG student or a student like myself who has the ability to hyper focus given the right material to wrestle with. The story takes place in a fictional town in Columbia over decades and follows the Buendia families struggles from generations through war and peace.
Theme/Topic: Timelessness. Interconnectedness. Modernism and Literature. The Surreal. Magical Realism.
Rationale: This book should be on everyone's book shelf in their classroom because a resistant reader might come along, peek inside of it, read a few pages and be instantly hooked. It has that power. I could see this book being the primary work in a unit on Modern Literature or Magical Realism for AP English students but again it would be a great book to challenge other students with as well.
Additional Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hundred_Years_of_Solitude
Some Kid's Senior Project. Awesome Trailer
**
Initial List
Group members, please add one or two books to this list.
The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir
The Turn of the Screw - Henry James - SC
Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman - SC
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig - SC, NPH
This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald - NPH
Crime and Punishment -- by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Ben Garcia's Input)
Oedipus Rex -- by Sophocles (Ben Garcia's Input)
One Hundred Years of Solitude -- by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Ben Garcia used this one above)